INRODUCTION
TO GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING
Abstract
This paper is set out
to introduce the student to the rudiments of guidance and counseling (also
known as counseling psychology) by addressing almost every aspect of the
profession. Guidance and counseling is a therapeutic intervention process of
helping an individual or group of persons who have personal or generalized
issues. In this work, antecedents and definition of guidance and counseling
were highlighted in simple form. This would no doubt be informative and
enriching to anyone that is seeking to know what the counselor does and how she
carries out her functions within ot outside the
school system.
Key Words: Guidance, Counselling,
Individual, Group
Introduction
Literally, Guidance services may be
considered to be as old as man. This is because from time immemorial, man has
always had rules and regulations guiding his actions. He has always had to
advise others and be advised by others as well. As long as there is social
interaction, there may be of necessity the need for problem-sharing and
advise-giving. At any rate, modern Guidance and Counselling
is much more than advise-giving. Both as a discipline and an organised practice, it has its roots in the New World (that
is, United States of America).
While
Guidance & Counselling (also known as Counselling Psychology) may be said to be as old as the
establishment of human family - when the parents and sometimes older siblings
served as counsellors, modern counselling
is a product of deliberate effort made by a particular group or movement to
help people live well, cope better, understand more, work effectively, and be
more effective on any activity in which they engage. A need for psychological counselling is created whenever environmental conditions become
sufficiently complicated that instinctive responses of human organisms are not
capable of delivering the necessary coping capabilities. There is no doubt that
the world in the last three decades has become so complex that personal
resources of man (cognitive, affective and psychomotor) are insufficient to
understand it. Many forces have offset the biosphere. The social set-up and the
whole ecological structure of the present environment is characterised
by very many sudden changes. There are
rapid changes in the physical environment, family, economic, political,
technological as well as psychosocial phenomenon. Modern life is accompanied by
stress from expanding and technology, rapid population increase, heinous
competition for space and power tussles often manifested in form of severe
ethnic conflicts. The tendency in human existence is generally toward worry,
threats, frustration, conflicts and possible anxieties. The age is often
described as the “age of conflicts,” or the “world aflame.” Expertise is
definitely required to handle human problems, human relationships, educational endeavours, occupational aspirations and choices, job
satisfaction, the variegated social and adjustment problems and decision-making
efforts of mankind.
Counselling
psychology, therefore, becomes a necessity for realistic and productive
existence of the Homo Sapiens in a complicated but dynamic world. Secondly, it
satisfies the academic curiosities of practitioners and clients as the delicate
but important helping relationships are contracted.
Also, some concerned people with
humanitarian and philanthropic outlook decided to help meet some of the coping
needs of a rather complicated life. The emphasis was mainly the restoration of
happiness in mankind by the supply of both concrete physical needs, as well as
the moral needs of mankind. They therefore emphasised
job placement as a way of satisfying the need. The philanthropists also felt
that people should be helped, their needs should be met and guidance for job
selection be supplied. This is probably the thin edge.
In religion and culture, there is a
parlance that as you lay your bed so you will find it and lie on it. In order
words, guidance services could be considered to be essential training. The Holy
Bible says “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he
will not depart from it.”
Apart from the apparent need for
individuals to learn the correct approach to life, especially the way to relate
abilities to realistic goals, the upsurge of school attendance sequel to the
2nd World War was a major issue that made guidance services imperative.
